Disclaimer : I do not own Vampire Knight.
I realized that I've lost quite a readers by the hits count. It's downright frustrating me.
To those who had waited for this for quite a time, please enjoy this :D
English is my second language, sorry for any errors found.
Warning : NO character deaths :/ I just feel the need to point that out. ;D
It was dark and Zero could not stop trembling. The bodies still around him, some with broken bones and some with blood pooling around them but Zero paid no attention. They tried to hurt him. They split his left wrist and they punched him until he could no longer squirm to escape. They hit him on his head when he tried to scream; he knew blood was trickling down from his temple, soaking his white shirt.
When sounds of footsteps approaching him became clearer, he could not help but to tilt his head up. The silhouette of the man, who rescued him, was in front of him. Zero was unable to form a word of gratitude, or to express his relief, the trauma he just experienced was still fresh.
"Don't worry… They won't be able to hurt you anymore. I've made sure that none of them will be able to walk at least within a fortnight…"
The soothing voice, it sounded so whispery and Zero could not make his dizzy mind to memorize it. The face of his rescuer was too blurred; he wanted to reach out his hand and touch the face but he was too weak. His body slumped against the wall and the man was leaning so close, as if it needed another small, tiny movement yet to make their lips meet.
His eyes, however, were darker than his own and Zero could almost see the tints of glistening red of browns.
"Don't worry… I'll make sure none of them- or anyone else, will be able to hurt you anymore."
Lips meeting his own; Zero's willingly closed his eyes, only to open it again –half lidded- when a warm palm move to cradle his head closer to him, carefully, gently, as if Zero would break if he did something wrong.
Zero did not know what had gotten into him. His used to be weak body responding almost eagerly to the other man. The latter proceeded to help Zero to place his hands onto his own shoulders, his other arm wrapped around Zero's small waist as their kiss deepened.
And then, Zero's world was nothing but a realm of darkness.
6 months later.
The day was just getting started when Zero heard the sound of the bell, informed all the waiters and waitress in the bakery that a customer had entered their place. Automatic greetings of 'Welcome to the Cross Bakery' were given to the said customer by the waiters.
Glancing over his shoulder, Zero followed the sight of their usual customer made his way to his favourite spot. The one beside the glass wall of the shop and also the farthest side from the bakery's counter. It gave a suitable atmosphere for private talk and also a nice view of the outside bakery. The customer, however, always came to the bakery alone for breakfast or evening tea. When the well known dark brown eyes met his own lilac ones, Zero shuddered by the strange feeling surging up his spine and quickly looked away. The customer smiled at his respond as he took his seat.
The customer was known by the family name of Kuran. That was one hell of a famous name. He was one of the top businessmen in Japan –Zero was taking business major in university so he knew a lot about that kind of people – and a popular one at that. He got the look –no one can deny that! – the style, the wealth, the brain and everything!
The only thing that made Zero clueless about him was his solo appearance every time he came.
The bakery was open daily from 8 am to 7 pm. The customers that came never fail to amaze Zero, truly proving the level of the bakery in the eyes of the citizens. Zero shook his head to make clear of his wandering mind before looking to his left side; Yuuki, the waitress slash best friend of Zero, blushed at the sight of the Adonis slash their first customer.
"Go take his order." Zero rolled his eyes at the words.
"Who are you ordering around? As far as I remember, I didn't take order from you-" Zero almost yelp when the shorter girl pushed him on his back to move towards the customer.
O-kay.
Zero knew Yuuki got issues and she had a crush on the brunette and why the hell it had to be him to take Kuran's order?
Not that Zero minded anyway, it was his job to do it.
Where the hell was Senri anyway? He usually the one who took order from this customer!
… Maybe he was busy doing something with Takuma behind the counter. Zero did not want to know more.
Bothering himself, Zero took his notepad just in case if the customer wanted to order more than the ordinary. He approached the brunette, who attire was all in business attire; his white dress shirt, and his black overcoat never mismatched his expression.
Very suitable.
"Welcome to Cross Bakery. May I take your order, Sir?"
Zero was rewarded with silence as he waited to jolt down orders. When he titled his head up from his notebook, his eyes widened by the sight of almost familiar eyes.
Quickly shaking his head, Zero cleared his throat and repeated,
"Your order, Sir?"
The man somehow just smiled, and closed his eyes. He leaned back on his chair with a relaxing sigh and reopened his eyes to show those dark brown orbs again.
"Give me two cups of tea, ginger's and strawberry's and a slice of white macadamia cake."
Zero stared at the man for a while, did not bother to jolt down his order since it had been the same thing over and over again since the first time he had came to the bakery – exception on the cakes though, he ordered different type of cake every time he came –. The thing that bothering him was that, why the customer kept on requesting for two cups of tea when he was always alone?
And in addition to that, strawberry tea was Zero's favourite!
Okay, maybe asking him would not kill but would it be too annoying for a waiter to become busybody about his customer?
"Umm, Sir-"
"The name is Kaname Kuran."
"Kaname."
That sounded nice.
A chuckle from Kaname surprised him and Zero blushed abruptly when he realized he had said the name loudly.
"Just forget it. Your order will be served in a moment, Sir." Feeling embarrass and piss off, Zero clenched tight his notebook with his right hand and his burning face with his left, quickly strode away from the brunette. He approached Akatsuki, the barista who just finished cleaning the counter. Man, that guy could have a cleanliness fetish like a girl.
"Give him two cups of-"
"His usual order? Strawberry and ginger?"
Zero blinked when the tall blonde cut him but nodded nevertheless.
"He is kind of weird though… Even though he ordered tea for two, he always left out one of them. All my hard work is being wasted just like that." Akatsuki spoke for Zero's mind. The silver haired teen just shrugged and leaned against the counter as he watched the tall blonde started his work. Yuuki, who was not far behind him, was already standing behind the counter; probably wanting to greet Kaname with enough sweetness and politeness.
Zero bet she already started to practice and rolled his eyes at the thoughts.
No matter how much he cared for Yuuki, girls could be quite annoying sometimes.
"Funny, eh? He didn't come today." Zero turned at the voice of his fellow co-workers. He raised an eyebrow at Yuuki's pout before turned to look at the empty seat, the one that Kaname used to occupy. His own heart somehow felt the disappointment but he shook the thought away.
He shrugged his shoulders, trying to act nonchalantly as he took out a cake, cutting a small piece of it to be served to the ordering customer.
"He's busy, probably. It's not like he has the official duty to come here every day." Zero snorted, carefully placing the delicious piece of Coffee Tiramisu onto a plate. Yuuki put her hands on her hips.
"Zero! He gave us quite a number of tips and he is one of our most important cus-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's important or we would have gone bankrupted, I've heard it all many times already, Yuuki. Don't put your hope too high on him. A man like him should already have a lover, or fiancée or something." Zero took the plate with one hand, another hand waving away the brunette girl before he went back to his customer. Yuuki pouted again and Takuma only laughed while standing beside her behind the counter.
It was late on the evening, raining too and Zero was left all alone to close the bakery since it was his turn on the schedule. Akatsuki just left the bakery with Zero's own twin brother and Zero had watched with a heavy sigh as the lovebirds left him behind for their promised date.
Sighing again, the silver haired waiter took a hold on the door sign and was about to turn it to 'CLOSED' when suddenly, a familiar brunette reached the front, glass door.
Lilac eyes were wide as Kaname gave him a pleading smile, silently asking to enter the bakery when he was supposed to know that the bakery was due to close at 7 pm. Zero frowned, his brain decided not to let the brunette in but his heart said otherwise.
But looking at the drenched looking businessman, Zero's heart won the contest.
Zero let the brunette entered the bakery, in which Kaname had gratefully thanked him for before he went to take his usual seat. Zero followed him and stopped when the distance was appropriate enough.
"Order?" Zero asked with a small voice and Kaname looked around him, noticing the absence of familiar blonde barista and everyone else as well.
"Just plain water… maybe?"
"For a short notice, I can make other drinks too." Zero inwardly rolled his eyes at the brunette. Kaname took off his brown trench coat, putting it on the seat beside him before looking up at the waiter again, this time with a smile on his handsome face.
"Very well, then. I'd loved to have ginger tea and strawberry tea, then Peanuts Butterscotch as well. Thank you."
Zero sighed before nodding his head and took his leave to ready the order. He decided to put extra ginger in the tea that he wanted, most probably because he looked quite cold and ginger was a good ingredient to warm up his body a bit.
Once he returned with the two cups of tea and a piece of cake, Kaname had surprised him with a request to have him seated in front of him. Zero twitched his eyes looking at the customer.
"Why?" his frown deepened when Kaname smiled back at him.
"Well… I'd love to have a companion to talk too and I believe you'll enjoy a cup of strawberry tea?" the young businessman gave a small grin, revealing his white pearly teeth and Zero suppressed another sigh before slumping down on the offered seat.
He still wore his uniform, completed with apron and Kaname's dark orbs observed his body neatly. Zero jolted to sit properly before shooting a glare toward him.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked in a small, hard tone and Kaname shrugged, take a sip of his ginger tea before exhaling almost happily.
"Nothing. I just thought that you look rather… endearing in your uniform, Zero-kun." The brunette remarked and Zero thought positively, that the brunette only knew his name because he was wearing his name tag.
But nobody that called him endearing could run away without any interrogation.
"Don't flirt with me. I barely know you." The waiter stated; his hand however, started to take a hold onto his cup of strawberry tea. Kaname gave a slight laugh, the type of laugh that suddenly made butterflies fluttered in Zero's stomach.
"My name is Kaname Kuran. You know me." The brunette's amused smile that later followed, brought warmth rose to his cheeks. Zero shook his head at the man's manner before he took his own sip of tea.
"Whatever, Kuran." He mumbled,
Kaname smiled, nodding his head at the submissive reply and he proceeded to devour his late evening tea with much appreciation. Zero watched as the man ate with graceful poises, his tongue licked his lips after every spoonful of cake he took into his mouth, carefully not to dirty himself.
Zero looked at the clock, on one of the higher walls of the bakery and grimaced.
He should clean everything up before Ichiru come to take him home together.
That if he remember that he got a brother for him to fetch home.
"I need to do some stuff. Just enjoy your meal." Zero stood up from his seat, ignoring the look of disapproval on Kaname's face. The waiter quickly went to clean the counter, washed all the dishes, sweeping and moping the kitchen's floor before turning off all the switches in the said place. He thought of sweeping the whole bakery's floor but it would have been rude since Kaname was eating.
The silver haired waiter glanced to look at his side and he blinked with three plastics bags of garbage greeted his sight. He looked back at Kaname and decided to just go out and throw away the garbage into the bin outside the shop without informing the brunette first.
He took the plastics with him and opened the back door before stepping out from the bakery. The rain was still heavy but he had no extra hand to hold an umbrella. Cursing under his breath, he opened the large garbage bin and threw in the plastics.
It was when someone grabbed him from behind, caused his body to jolt in surprise.
He hastily turned to look at the intruder and his eyes widened when he found a gang of five men surrounded him.
Zero stepped back, only to stop when the garbage bin met his back.
The memories of last incident, the one that got him being held at the hospital for a month, came back to live.
They were the same people that tried to hurt him and touch him with their dirty hands. He had screamed for help, fought for his life and they kicked him out of his consciousness.
Fear gripped him like a strong metal and Zero looked around for any way out but found none.
"Last time you got away with your saviour, pretty boy. But this time, you're alone… Aww, poor pretty boy…" the leader smirked as he stepped closer and Zero hastily launched a kick on his gut. His aim found his target and the leader cried out in pain.
Zero took the chance to run away but his four followers were quicker. One of them caught him from behind, grabbing and twisting his arms on his back at the time and it caused Zero to scream in pain. The other three grinned as they moved forward. One greedily took off his apron and his shirt, other taking out a rope to tie him down and another one stuffing his mouth with cloth as the gag.
Zero felt raindrops wetting his face as he struggled for his escape.
They were not supposed to come back.
They were supposed to go away and scared to be near him.
But this time, the one who saved him from their grip during last time, was not there and Zero suddenly felt his tears, one or two drops, mixed with rain as his muffled screams were heard.
When they threw him to the ground, on his stomach, one straddled his back and pushed his face toward the ground, another tried to pull his slacks off, Zero clenched his eyes closed and cried for someone to come and just save him.
"If I were you, I won't dare to get near him after I was warned not to."
Then a familiar voice was heard.
His attackers' movements were stopped as if the Devil itself had come to kill him. Zero's eyes were wide as he looked over his shoulder; Kaname was standing not far from them, eyes glinting in darkness and when he gave a small smirk, Zero's memories came back to live.
"It's him! Kill him!" the leader suddenly yelled.
Zero was left frozen in his position as the men moved to attack the brunette. But Kaname easily dodged their attacks. He took one down by a hard punch on his stomach, another with a swing of his leg hit him on his head and result him to being thrown off to the wall. The other three complotted to attack him at the same time but Kaname just casually rolled off his right shoulder as if he just started to warm up.
He then, halted a punch by his right palm, his right foot kicking the one who tried to attack him from his right side and he twisted the hand that he got in his grip before throwing the man at last attacker. The two met each other with harsh momentum and they were slammed against the brick wall too.
Kaname 'tch'ed as he looked at the four unconscious men. One still awake but wounded quite badly. The brunette titled his head with an innocent smile upon his face.
"Leave and do not return. Nothing can stop me from killing you if you come back." He spoke with a casual tone at the man and the latter frighteningly ran for his life.
Kaname watched as he disappeared, before slowly looking down at the stilled waiter on the ground.
Zero tried to back away, suddenly became aware of the pair of eyes that were staring at him now and he failed when Kaname was suddenly kneeling in front of him. The brunette went to take off the rope that tied him down without wasting any more time.
Once he was released from the grip, Zero turned to look at Kaname, who had a worried expression upon his face. He bit his lips, still half sitting on the ground as he rubbed on his bruised wrist.
"You're the one who saved me before… aren't you?" Zero slowly murmured and Kaname gave him a small smile.
"Let's get you inside…" the brunette took a hold on his body and out of blue, Zero found himself being carried like a bride in the brunette's arms. He looked up and hissed, glared at the man, demanding to be put down but was responded only with an amused chuckle.
They entered the bakery together and Kaname placed him down on one of the couches provided for customers. Zero then, hastily tried to cover his chest when he finally realized that his shirt was torn open and Kaname raised an eyebrow at his action.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Zero, calm down, please." The brunette softly spoken before he returned back to his focus on inspecting Zero's injuries. Zero huffed at him, looking away with blushes tainting his pale white cheeks.
Both of them were soaked with rainwater and Zero shivered when Kaname pressed his lips against his bruised wrist. Zero made no action to pull away but he voiced out his confusion anyway.
"Why did you saved me? I mean, for once, it was acceptable but this is the second time…" he frowned and Kaname let out a small chuckle.
"I am attracted to you, Zero, that's why I did. And I did promise not to let anyone hurt you anymore…" he replied with a smile. Zero was silent for a moment, then his lilac eyes widened in surprise.
"So that's why you keep on coming-"
"Yes, Zero, I keep on coming back to the bakery to check on you. I have to make sure that you are all right." The brunette cut him half way with his own explanation, the one that caused Zero to become dumbstruck.
"And of course, I come back here every time because I enjoy seeing you working... in your cute apron. You'll make an adorable wife for me." He chuckled, his tone teasing, and causing Zero to hit his head half heartedly.
"Stalker." Zero retorted with a flushing face but Kaname just looked up at him, the smile still gracing his handsome face. The brunette leaned in until their nose tips almost touched, their eyes locked and the brunette's breaths were suddenly mingled with his own.
"I love you... Give me a try?" the brunette softly whispered and Zero turned to blush heavier, only the scowl that present on his face that made him identical as Zero.
"You didn't ask anything the last time you kissed me. Why ask now? Just do it." the silver haired teen mumbled and Kaname let out another hearty laughter.
"For a short notice," he repeated Zero's words earlier, watching as Zero's eyes twitched under him with amusement before he continued.
"Last time when I first kissed you, Zero… I found out that the scent of strawberry tea fits your lips very well."
With another small chuckle escaping his lips, Zero could not help his own smile from revealing itself and in a second later, both of them were kissing and touching each other feverishly on the couch.
"Welcome to Cross Bakery!"
The greetings were the sign of his starting day as Kaname entered the place. He took his usual seat, fully aware of the coming waiter and the small smile that greeted him later on, brightened up his early day.
"What would be your order for today, Sir?" Zero asked casually, as if the customer was not his own boyfriend and Kaname chuckled at him, relaxingly leaned on his seat. Their eyes met momentarily and Zero looked away to hide his blush while Kaname's smile widened.
"Tea for two, please."
END.
A/N : I don't know what else to say.
Review please.